Iran’s national airline IRAN AIR has formally applied to the US Civil Aviation Organization for permission to resume direct flights from Tehran to New York – for the first time in 34 years - striking evidence of the momentum of rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Abolfazi Hejazi, head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that he expects the maiden flight to JFK to take off from the free trade zone on Kish Island, the first direct passenger flight to the United States since 1979, the year of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.